Seller did not do what I asked, do I pay?

[mellempire]

I’m still confused as to how I (as a buyer) can assess whether someone is able to do your job to the level you want, as his profile and examples look like he was very skilled and knew what to do…

I guess I’ll read more reviews.

Thanks Melanie

Sadly these are skills that no longer seem to be taught by parents teachers etc. Almost more the opposite when the beerholder decides if offense was intended or not. Which of course puts the whole world upside down.

We still have senses tho so use them. Look not only at what people want you to see but see past that to what they are not saying. When a singer comes to me wanting a song Mixed & Mastered, I look to see if they have included a rough mix and track count. Not doing so tells me they are either amateur or clueless. If they try telling me about how important they are or that this mix has to go to #1 and win Grammys then I know it is the latter.

You can indeed start a conversation with a prospective seller and see how they handle themselves. Don’t ask for free samples but you can ask for portfolio if not already offered - lack of a tidy portfolio of their own is to me a red flag. A good operator will seek genuine info and even warn of possible issues.

Price. $5 sellers are chasing the unwary. I think that even if they say $5 but it turns out that is for 20 secs of a larger project. Quote properly instead of with entrapment.

If your work is likely to take about 2 hours (incl housekeeping) then expect at least 2x your hourly wage. The more specialist your work (and you have to be honest, the idea may seem simple but the execution not) the more that rate needs to be. Also factor in fees as Fiverr takes 20% so $25 is really $20. While $20 pleases you, you are offering $16 which is massively different at this sort of price point and probably indicates a per hour of ~$4-5 which is criminal in most countries for a reason. Bear in mind that most conscientious freelancers commonly spend up to 3x the quoted hours ensuring they are happy with the work - happy enough to show in their portfolio.

Even if not thinking you are going to spend $500 on your job, look at eh difference between the $500 sellers, the $150 sellers, and the $5 sellers. you should see that while the $500 may not have as much gold-leaf in their portfolio, their work is solid and clearly unique.

🙂

Thank you, I appreciate your thorough reply.

You make good points, I will consider all your advice when approaching someone else to do any work.

Thank you 🙂

[mellempire]

I feel more battered from this forum than the actual experience with the seller.

Welcome to the forum! Where, luckily, we only have a handful of bullies…but they sure are loud.

My advice: Don’t engage

🙂 thank you, good advice …you have restored my faith in the good people

[janali]

OK, calm down… I’m not ‘stealing’ the buyers work or looking for free work- .

Trying to get “several sellers” to do your work, without an order, IS stealing. Sellers offer their services here, for a price. This is a freelance services marketplace. You are required to pay the price they have listed for those services, not get them to do your work outside of an order, and then have them deliver “via messages”.

As I said, this is the first time I’ve used Fiverr and I literally didn’t even know how the system works…

Did you not read the Terms of Service when you signed up, and when you were asked to check the box that stated that you had, indeed, read the TOS?

BUYERS also get ripped off too.

You did not get “ripped off”. There were no orders. You asked for free work, and were given free work. You get what you (don’t) pay for.

I can see by your aggressive response that Fiverr is definitely not for me if the ‘community’ is so unhelpful and full of assumptions like you.

I, and other sellers, do not appreciate buyers who seek to take advantage of other sellers.

For the record, if he sends me a payment request, of course Im going to pay.

You could have been honest, and asked him to send you a custom order.

Trying to get “several sellers” to do your work, without an order, IS stealing. Sellers offer their services here, for a price. This is a freelance services marketplace. You are required to pay the price they have listed for those services, not get them to do your work outside of an order, and then have them deliver “via messages”.

From what I can see the buyer sent a buyer’s request and a seller came through saying “I can do it” so the buyer explained what they need again for confirmation and the seller, instead of giving a quote, sent the work without being asked to do so. That is the seller’s problem, not the buyer’s.

I literally was asking how this all works and if the sellers often send stuff and then you decide if the work suits-as how it works with another logo making website (can’t recall the name).

That is not how Fiverr is supposed to work. Basically, if you receive responses to your buyer’s request, you can click on their name and check out their profile to read their reviews and maybe they have portfolio samples in their gigs that you can check out and see if you like the work they have done or whether they even offer what you need. If you like a seller’s profile, you can tell them to send you a quote for the work you want them to do for you. That quote you can see in the normal inbox. If you accept it, you get billed and the timer starts so the seller can get started working on your project.

But since the first seller didn’t actually send you a quote but just did some of the work unsolicited, there is no such contract.

If I was you, I would consider this a sample of work, not the actual work.

Keep in mind, however: Not paying for work done means you don’t own the rights to the work so you may not use it in any way.

[ammarshrf]

You sent a request to several sellers, which most buyers do. One of them asked for the images and you sent it to them, the seller did work on it before sending you a custom gig. His fault not yours. Do not pay anything if it was not what you expected, because it is clear that you did not ask him to do the job.

I, as a seller, ALWAYS ask for my clients’ documents before I start the gig (just to have a closer look), I, as a seller, am responsible if I worked on it or not before sending a custom gig. I, as a seller, am responsible to send you the custom gig before I start to work on it. IMO, you did nothing wrong, it is up to you whether you want to send him payment or not. If it was me, and I didn’t like the work (doing 1 thing out of 4 things I asked for) wouldn’t pay a thing and move on.

[catwriter]

Thank you , I appreciate your reply and considering the whole scenario (& not labelling me as a thief)

He has 101 reviews so I think he is experienced with the process.

After he sent his work I immediately sent him a message thanking him and listing the things he didn’t do as per my original outline. He hasn’t replied.

I will ask for a work order and pay. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he just didn’t understand my brief. I just want to move on from this. I feel more battered from this forum than the actual experience with the seller.

But thank you for your advice and guidance.

He has 101 reviews so I think he is experienced with the process.

101 reviews isn’t a lot. There are sellers with 10,000+ reviews.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t hire a seller with a small number of reviews, or a seller with no reviews at all (everyone starts with no reviews, after all, which doesn’t mean that they have zero previous experience), just that 101 isn’t a lot here. 🙂

One useful trick when looking at reviews is to look for negative ones, and how the seller responded to them. That can help you see who responds like a professional.

[alyonagrapie]

It really doesn’t seem like you had any malicious intentions, looks like an honest mistake on both parts. I think the nice way to go about this would be to place an order for a basic gig of this seller, send them the same image, ask for updates and see what happens. Then maybe they send you a better quality version. And even if they can’t, then atleast you paid for the provided sample, so your conscience is clear.

But that’s if you want to do a nice thing. As you did not request any samples, you are not obligated to pay for them in my opinion.
I offer a free sample with one of my gigs (the gig implies bulk orders and providing a sample doesn’t take more than 5-10 minutes), since most buyers place an order after getting one, it also serves as a draft. I never expect to be paid for it, if a buyer doesn’t like it or find someone else before I reply. I only get frustrated when it’s clear they weren’t going to purchase anything from me in the first place. Like that one time another seller asked me to edit a picture for his profile :roll_eyes:
That is my choice to provide a sample and that’s on me, buyer can’t be taken accountable for my decisions. Although I would consider offering to pay for the time I invested in this a nice gesture.

And just a word of advise, if you’re looking for quality, BR is not the best way to go about it. That’s a place where predatory buyers and bottom line sellers hang out. “Bottom line” doesn’t necessarily means they are bad, that also includes genuine and talented beginners with little or no reviews, but that’s a gamble. And even if you do use BR, scroll to the bottom of the offers you’ve got, because that’s where the good ones will end up. Simply because most sellers only see a request for a few seconds and then it gets dozens of copy paste replies and it’s gone. You want to chose from the sellers who actually took the time to read your request and reply with a custom message, they will be the last ones to make it.
But generally you are better off using search, scrolling through a few pages and checking out the gigs you like.
Don’t let this experience to put you off of Fiverr, there’s plenty of great sellers here in every category, you just have to learn how to tell them apart from incompetens ones.

[english_voice]

The word ‘clearly’ is of course open to interpretation. However you do write well.

But it’s generally regarded as poor / shady practice, certainly on Fiverr and I would ague in the freelance world generally, to expect sellers / freelancers to provide free samples that involve them actually having to work on a task - rather than have them raid their back catalogue of work for representative examples.

The reason you’ve got some quite direct feedback from other sellers on this forum is because in every case they are experienced and respected sellers who, like I’ve said above, have an issue with being asked to work for free.

I’m of the belief that if you want to ‘try out’ a seller / freelancer then you discuss your requirements and place a small sample order - even if it’s just $5. This way everyone feels morally good, and the seller / freelancer is more likely to provide a representative sample of their work - rather than either try to do their best through gritted teeth (thinking I’m not getting paid for my time), or else (if they’re stupid) pull something together quickly that is actually pretty crappy and won’t lead to an order anyway.

If you feel hard done by because of the responses you’ve had on here, I’m sure it’s because you’ve got a few people to work for free - when the good experienced freelancers really would expect a sample order to be placed.

[miiila]

I’m seeing you asking here also as you having good intentions, like others, and it can be a little overwhelming on a new platform, but the critical voices do have a point as well.

When you start using Fiverr, you really have to read the Terms of Service, which not only tell you some of the “how it works” but you also might unknowingly violate the one or other of them, which can lead to an account warning/ban else. That’s a must-read for any user in any case, as you agree to them by using the site.

What I’d recommend too, is to at least check out the FAQs in Fiverr’s “Buyer Help Center”, and to keep in mind that it exists for when you’re not sure about anything “technical”, as that can keep a lot of issues from happening in the first place.

And if the above resources don’t help, there’s always the forum, of course, asking beforehand can save you trouble or moral dilemmas.

[wp_kid]

[Pending Review]